


Ikiru

by hidethemoon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Fluff, Itachi gets a dog, Itachi needs a hug, M/M, Naruto is precious, Post-War, cute dog story turns into characters doing and feeling things, everyone lives au, mentions of non-graphic sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 13:24:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20228572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidethemoon/pseuds/hidethemoon
Summary: Itachi gets a puppy, and needs some help raising it.Post-war Itachi lives AU.





	Ikiru

**Author's Note:**

> I just needed to write something adorable and sweet about my favorite Naruto character. There isn't enough of that for any of the characters (never enough) so maybe I'll write more someday with other characters. 
> 
> Also I modeled Ikiru after a samoyed because I love them so.
> 
> Enjoy!

He hears it during the twilight hours, when the sun is setting in golds and purples over the eve of Konoha summer. It’s nearing September now, the long days slowly turning into longer nights, but the heat sticks around as it always does.

Itachi writes the noises off at first, content to lean against the weathered post on the back porch and absently wipe sweat from his brow. The heat isn't stifling, and he's been through worse. The stark silence of the Uchiha compound is broken by cicadas, and also--Itachi pauses, listening to the noises of distress with a bit more attention now.

The sounds should have stopped minutes ago. But Itachi is still hearing the high-pitched, distressing calls of a young animal, and his heart can hardly bear to hear it any longer. Curiosity wins over apathy. He has to make sure.

Winding through the paths of the compound, he comes to the long-abandoned corner of it that faces the forest to the south. This is where he had struck first, climbed the wall--

_No._

Itachi shakes his head, steadfastly avoids the memories and the stains that come along with it. He is eternally grateful for whoever cleaned up in the aftermath of the massacre. Both Sasuke and himself would have had a harder time dealing with the memories if the physical remnants had remained. 

He follows the distress to the porch of granny Amare’s home. Amare was spared his blade, as she had died a couple of years beforehand of old age. She left no successors, a widow to her core, and Itachi fondly remembers her homemade daifuku. He crouches to look underneath her porch, and slowly pulls out a small, white puppy.

The puppy is far too small. Its eyes are still closed, ears still flapped shut. Pink skin still shows through the downy white fur. But its lungs are working correctly, if the high-pitched yips are any tell at all. Itachi looks again, and finds the mother deeper underneath Amare’s home, clearly dead. There are two more lumps at her teats, unmoving and breathless. 

One survivor.

Itachi straightens, holding the distressed puppy closer to his chest. He can’t leave it here to die. He’s had more than enough of death in his miserable life. Ensuring the life of another, especially a helpless puppy, well, it might help his heart to atone in even the smallest of ways. Nothing else has helped so far.

Itachi takes the puppy back to his home, cradling it carefully against his chest. Its cries have died down considerably after being pressed against the warmth of Itachi’s body, though he knows it is hungry. He doesn’t know much about raising puppies barely out of their fetal stage, but he supposes he will figure it out. He usually does.

Sasuke is sitting in his kitchen when he returns.

“Thought you’d finally ran off,” his brother mutters, dark eyes accusing but not spiteful. Itachi huffs softly through his nose and loosens his arms so that Sasuke's eyes can catch on the white bundle of fur curled up in his arms.

“What...Itachi, is that a _puppy_?” Sasuke asks incredulously.

Itachi just smiles down at the little animal, running a careful finger down its back. The puppy shifts and whimpers in his arms. It's a pitiful noise, and Itachi's heart clenches a little bit.

“Where the hell did you even find it?”

“Its mother and siblings are dead. I couldn’t leave it there.”

Sasuke scoffs, but bites back the retort that is so nearly on the tip of his tongue. Despite everything, Sasuke has made a valiant effort not to antagonize his brother much. Their relationship is strained, tense, but he’s trying. Itachi is trying, too. “So, what, are _you_ gonna raise it?”

Sasuke didn’t seem to need an answer, but Itachi’s mouth tightens anyway. He runs a finger along the downy fur, marveling at this little puppy’s strength. Its mother had clearly been dead for a while, and its siblings perished before it. A survivor.

“Her name is Ikiru,” is all he responds with.

-:-

He makes it nearly two days of trying to care for Ikiru with the little knowledge that he has before Sakura bursts through the door.

She throws the large bag in her hands at him, which he catches deftly, all the while glaring at her for making such a racket. Ikiru had just fallen asleep. Sakura completely ignores his narrowed gaze, unintimidated and unimpressed, and she eyes the puppy in Itachi's arms.

“That’s formula for her. Enough for a month. I’ll show you how to make it.” Sakura pauses, still not looking at him. “Can I see her?”

Itachi clutches Ikiru closer to his chest. He’s oddly protective of his little charge, unwilling to let foreign eyes see her. He doesn’t know why. 

“Do you want her to die?” Itachi stiffens. Sakura sighs. 

“Let me see her,” she tries again, her voice softer, and Itachi slowly unravels Ikiru from the cage of his arms. Sakura’s face softens as well at the sight of that downy white fur which is slowing beginning to thicken, the puckered, pink little face, and Itachi knows then she has the pup’s best interests in mind. She wants to help. He allows her to reach out a hand and run a quick diagnostic on Ikiru. 

"What have you been giving her?" she asks, not accusing.

"Cow's milk. It's what I had available." Sakura's mouth thins, but she doesn't reprimand him. She doesn't need to--he knows.

“She’ll be just fine, Itachi,” Sakura says in a low tone that’s meant to be non-threatening, soothing, and it is. “I don’t know much about dogs or their health, but there’s nothing wrong that I can find. She’s a little dehydrated, but the formula will help.” Itachi slowly relaxes, letting Ikiru become fully visible to Sakura. She strokes a gentle finger down the puppy’s spine, and her smile widens. Itachi couldn’t feel more grateful if he tried.

Sakura snags the bag she brought and begins to pull things out of it. “She’s going to need this puppy formula for at least four more weeks. I got it from Hana, so you know it's the good stuff. Her eyes should open in about a week, give or take. After that, you can begin feeding her soft foods and supplementing with the formula--”

Itachi neatly compartmentalizes Sakura’s instructions as he stares down at Ikiru, who is snuffling quietly against his arm. He will remember the instructions clearly, his genius will allow nothing less, but right now he can only focus on Ikiru’s twitching eyelids and soft puppy cries. 

She is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

Three days later, Itachi has just pulled the nipple of the bottle from Ikiru’s mouth. She finished the entire thing, her belly swollen and incredibly stroke-able (it’s a word, Itachi is sure). He’s skimming his fingers across her thick, fluffy white fur when Ikiru squirms with a cry. 

“Shhh,” he soothes, moving his hand to the crown of her skull and stroking gently. Ikiru does not quieten, however, and squirms again with another puppy cry that worries Itachi.

“Ikiru?” 

The tiny puppy does not answer, of course, only squirms for a moment longer under his fingertips. Just as Itachi is growing concerned, and debating running Ikiru to Sakura’s house in the dead of night, Ikiru surprises him once again.

She opens her eyes, and Itachi is met with a stark black that matches his own.

He cries.

-:-

In two weeks, Ikiru is fully mobile. She now thunders around the house with all the grace of a wild hog, yipping gleefully as she does drive-bys on Itachi’s ankles. Her ears perked up shortly after her eyes opened, triangular and as fluffy as the rest of her. Her round puppy body becomes less awkward with each passing day, slightly more agile and prone to sudden bursts of energy. Itachi can still easily catch her, but he worries it won’t be so easy in another few weeks.

But Ikiru always comes back to him.

At the end of a particularly harrowing chase of a butterfly or other insect she always flops down into Itachi’s lap, panting happily. She comes to him at night, ready to curl up against the dip of his waist and crawl into slumber with him. Her dark eyes and perky ears send his heart soaring every time she looks at him with her head cocked, curious, listening to his voice as no one else does. 

She’s grown out of the formula and into soft foods, which again he needed Sakura’s help for. Despite being a human medic, it’s clear Sakura has taken some time to learn as much as she could about dog nutrition and health. Her dedication warms something that had been left hard and cold in Itachi’s chest by years of loneliness. He’s more grateful than he can ever say.

Itachi could have asked an Inuzuka for help as well, if he’d really wanted to get his balls twisted off, but he has avoided all but Sasuke’s closest friends since his reinstatement to the village. Maybe Sakura is getting her information second-hand, but it works well enough. He just isn’t quite brave enough to ask the village’s dog experts. Even Kakashi has made it to his avoidance list, as easy-going as the man is. He doubts Kakashi has truly forgiven him for putting him through his Tsukuyomi.

Ikiru grows rapidly once she is introduced to solid foods, and Itachi feels himself despairing.

“So....what’s got your panties in a twist?” Sakura asks one day while she’s checking Ikiru’s vitals, expertly handling the squirming dog in her hands. Itachi flushes, but doesn’t otherwise react to her wording. 

“She is growing up,” Itachi says instead, watching Ikiru’s gangly body twist in Sakura’s hands and chew on her arm. “I’m...not ready.”

Sakura snorts, smiling. “Parents are never ready for their children to grow up.” She man-handles Ikiru into the palms of her hands, checking her eyes and ears for abnormalities. Ikiru has grown sturdier over the past few weeks, but most of her bulk is from the thick coat of white fur she’s grown. “Your baby is perfectly healthy, Itachi. Congratulations.”

Some of his despair must have shown on his face, because when Sakura looks up at him she frowns. “What’s wrong?”

Ikiru throws herself into his arms and Itachi gladly accepts her, threading his hands through her thick white fur and gently petting her. He’s rewarded with a puppy kiss to his cheek. While Ikiru still likes to be cuddled for the moment, she is a growing dog, and soon Itachi must accept that she won’t want to be cuddled like a puppy any longer. The thought makes his heart ache fiercely, and he blinks back the wetness in his eyes. “She won’t let me do this soon. She’ll be too old to want this. What if...what if she leaves?” 

Sakura is quiet for a short minute, bemused and looking like she's trying to decide if Itachi is serious or not. Then she starts laughing.

“I can tell you’ve never had a pet in your life, Itachi,” she giggles. “Dogs aren’t like human children. They’re dogs. She’s never going to leave your side, and now that this cuddly behavior is established, it’s never going to end unless you train her not to. She’s going to be as loyal as a ninken without all the shinobi perks. I thought you knew that.”

Itachi flushes. No, he hadn’t known that. He’d never known anyone who had pets just to have them. Some of the older clan members had fed stray cats, but that was about as close as he’d ever gotten to domestic animals. He had never been sure how a domestic animal’s loyalty was won; surely not like a ninken, or a summons, but maybe something else. Was it really this easy?

“She is...she will be happy here?” He asks, uncertain.

Sakura smiles softly. “I think she already is. You’re doing just fine.”

Ikiru is collapsed in his lap, panting happily, and he can feel her curled tail thumping softly against his thigh. She certainly seems happy.

Itachi smiles, a real true smile that pulls gently at his lips. “Thank you,” he tells Sakura. She winks at him and gets up to leave, grabbing her bag she’d deposited on the couch. 

“If anyone needed a little love in their life, it was you, Itachi. She’s good for you. I’m glad you rescued her.”

Itachi swallows around the lump in his throat, refusing to let the emotions consume him as they so often do now until he hears his door shut behind Sakura with a soft click. 

“I am too,” he mutters, stroking Ikiru’s soft, thick fur and ignoring the warm fall of tears on his face.

-:-

“You know, I’d make you get an apartment closer to the town center just so you wouldn’t be living here, but I think your dog loves the space too much,” Sasuke says.

He and Naruto had swooped into Itachi’s house earlier this evening, mostly on Naruto’s urging, and had strong-armed Itachi into letting them make dinner. Naruto is in the kitchen, where Itachi can hear him muttering over the ingredients. Sasuke has joined him briefly on the back porch, where he’s watching Ikiru zoom around the yard with a wild light in her eyes. She does this about once a day, usually in the evenings, and Itachi finds an immense amount of joy in watching her run like the devil is snapping at her feet. Her energy brings a breath of life back into the empty compound that was desperately needed.

“She does. Where could she run around like this in a tiny apartment?” Itachi agrees as he fondly watches her. Even Sasuke looks amused.

“Whatever. At least she’s...making you happy. Better than any of us could have.”

Itachi slants a look at his brother. “It’s hard to reclaim happiness in a village that bloodied our futures so thoroughly.”

Sasuke’s eyes darken, but he doesn’t look away from Ikiru’s mad dashing. “Then why did you agree to come back?”

Itachi sighs. He didn’t know, at first, why he had agreed. He had incomplete reasons, nothing that was good enough. But he also needed the familiarity of Konoha at the time, even if it pained him. “I don’t know,” he admits aloud, and watches as Sasuke’s face shutters. “I wanted to hate Konoha for what they made me do. But I had to come back to you, at least for a little while. I’ve caused you enough pain.”

“And if I’d wanted you to stay away from me?” Sasuke returns, face still carefully blank.

“Then I would have. But you never asked me to. Did you want me to stay away, Sasuke?” 

His brother is quiet for a long moment. He watches as Ikiru halts her mad dashing about the garden and collapses in a heap on the overgrown flowerbed, flopping about and getting dirt in her fur. Itachi is going to have to give her a bath.

“I hated you for so long,” Sasuke begins quietly, and Itachi’s heart clenches, “but I also never stopped loving you. I hated that I could never decide which one I felt more. But you’re still my big brother. I worshipped you, and I still kind of do...even if you did kill our whole family.” 

“...is that a no?”

Sasuke huffs a laugh. Ikiru echoes it in the garden, snorting into the flowers and making herself sneeze. “I’m glad you came back, Itachi. Even if I don't always act like it.”

“Oh.” Itachi blinks, waylaid by the sudden open display of emotion on Sasuke’s face. His brother almost looks happy.

“I still hate you sometimes. But I’m okay to try again, if you are.”

Itachi looks out at Ikiru. She’s watching a particularly fat bumblebee bounce around the begonias, her head tilting from side to side. It’s the cutest thing Itachi’s ever seen. He smiles. “Yes, I think I’m okay to try again now.”

-:-

Itachi is giving Ikiru a bath when Naruto bursts into his home. 

“Where’s the baby girl?!” he yells, and Ikiru barks excitedly. Itachi can’t get a grip on her fast enough and she bursts out of the tub in a wet explosion that catches Itachi squarely in the face. She bounds out of the bathroom and Itachi hears Naruto shriek.

“No, you’re wet! I’m sorry Itachi!” Naruto shouts, and Itachi heaves a sigh.

He wipes his face on the hanging towel, then grabs the stack of towels he’d had on standby to dry her. He exits the bathroom, wincing at the puddles of water tracked into the living area.

Ikiru is sitting on Naruto in all her soaked glory. Naruto has the grace to look apologetic, but he’s rubbing Ikiru’s ears all the same. Itachi purses his lips. He’d learned through experience that his patented death glare had zero effect on Naruto, but his “I’m very disappointed in you” face usually did the trick. He still hasn’t figured out why his disappointment bothers Naruto so, but he hasn’t asked. 

“I didn’t know you were bathing her. I’m sorry, I got your house all wet,” Naruto says sheepishly.

He throws a towel at Naruto. “It’s fine. We were almost done. Help me dry her off.”

They vigorously towel off a preening Ikiru, fending off her random bouts of full-body shaking before attacking her again. She is left pleasantly damp by the time they are done and immediately begins rolling around on the rug. Itach sighs.

“Did you need something, Naruto?” he asks as he gathers up the wet towels to take to the laundry.

Naruto suddenly looks a bit embarrassed. Itachi, in the short time that he’s known Naruto, has never known him to be embarrassed. Something must be wrong.

“Is something wrong?” he questions tentatively. He’s not sure how he would be of any help if something were wrong, but he’s not about to kick Naruto out. Best to let him down gently.

Naruto flushes, and his face screws up momentarily before he seems to gather up his courage and face Itachi. “I need some advice,” he blurts out. Itachi frowns in confusion.

“Advice...from me?” Naruto nods, and there’s a new, alarming hopefulness in those blue eyes that makes Itachi uneasy. “Why not from Sasuke, or Sakura?” _Why_ me, he doesn’t ask. It’s understood.

“Weeell,” Naruto hedges, and that flush is back. “Sakura told me to come ask you, because you’re Sasuke’s brother, and she was busy, and I can’t ask Sasuke because obviously this about Sasuke, and I figured Sakura was right, even though you and Sasuke aren’t that close anymore, and maybe you could help me out!” Naruto says all of this in a rush, hardly pausing for a breath in between, and Itachi is flummoxed.

“You need advice about Sasuke?” The clarification isn’t really necessary, but he wants to make sure he’s on the same page as Naruto. Naruto nods. “What...kind of advice?” He has a feeling he’s going to regret asking.

Naruto’s face all but crumples. Oh yes, Itachi regrets. “I _love_ him,” he cries out, and his eyes are suspiciously wet. “But that stupid bastard is so dense! And sometimes I think he would rather choke on a tomato than be around me. Then, sometimes he smiles at me, or he teases me in a _nice_ way, or, or, pulls leaves from my hair after a spar, and I just love him _so much_. I can’t take it anymore, Itachi.”

Itachi blinks at Naruto, stricken. Ikiru comes padding from the kitchen, now perfectly fluffy and dry and gorgeous, and stuffs herself into Naruto’s lap, licking his chin gently. For human standards, it’s a comforting gesture, and Naruto sighs and hugs Ikiru closer to him. She fixes a smug look on Itachi. Traitor.

“Well…” Itachi begins after a moment, making sure Naruto isn’t about to burst into tears in his living room. He gingerly sits down next to Naruto on the couch, still clutching the bundle of wet towels as a buffer. “Have you tried telling him this?” Naruto shakes his head miserably. Itachi sighs. “Maybe you should try that,” he suggests gently.

Naruto blanches. “What if he hates me? What if he never wants to speak to me again? I might actually, for real die if he rejects me.” His chin quivers ominously. Ikiru gives it another gentle lick.

“My brother can be rather obtuse at the worst of times,” Itachi agrees, and Naruto snorts, muttering something that sounds like ‘_no shit_.’ Itachi ignores it. “And, I imagine after everything that’s happened, he probably doesn’t feel like he deserves something as rewarding as...as love. Right now, you could probably hand him a glowing sign declaring your love, and he would think you mean it for someone else. He is...punishing himself, for everything. But, you are forgetting something very important, Naruto.”

Naruto perks up, and Itachi pretends he doesn’t see the wet tear tracks streaking down his whiskered cheeks. “What?”

“He came back to you.”

Naruto looks like he’s been punched in the face. After a moment, however, he shakes it off, that dubious frown back. “He didn’t return for only _me_,” Naruto argues stubbornly, but Itachi shakes his head.

“Do you really think Sasuke would have come back here for anyone else? Even I can see how much you mean to him. He is not the best at showing it, but I know that he cares deeply for you. I can’t say that it’s love, as I won’t speak for him, but you can find that out for yourself.”

Naruto smiles softly, but his eyes are still rather sad. “He came back for you, too, didn’t he?”

It’s Itachi’s turn to smile sadly. “He asked me to come with him. But, no, he would not have come back for just me. Or, rather, he wouldn’t have stayed. I was the one who threw Sasuke into the darkest days of his life. But you, Naruto, were always the one to pull him out. He hasn’t forgotten that, I promise.”

Next thing he knows, Itachi’s personal space is being invaded by a happily sobbing Naruto and a whining Ikiru. Naruto has slung an arm around Itachi and yanked him into a hug. Ikiru is crying in his lap for some attention of her own, and Naruto laughingly rubs at her ears with his other hand. Itachi, feeling somewhat violated, sits very still and waits for Naruto to let him go.

“Thank you, ‘tachi. I...think I’m gonna go tell him. Right now. He should be home by now.”

“I’m sure one of you will let me know how it goes,” Itachi mutters peevishly, still feeling a bit violated. Naruto just laughs and makes to leave. Itachi moves to finally take the moldering towels to the laundry before they smell even more like wet dog.

“Oh, Itachi,” Naruto says, pausing at the door. “I think you also try taking your own advice. Just a thought.”

He legs it out the door and slams it shut just as a towel thwacks wetly against it.

-:-

Itachi doesn’t know Ikiru’s exact date of birth, but she was practically a newborn when he found her last September, so he’d decided to go with September 7th as her birthday. 

It’s September 6th, and Itachi is silently panicking a little bit.

Ikiru will be one year old tomorrow. Itachi doesn’t want to be that person who throws their dog a birthday party, but he wants to do something for her. Bake her a dog friendly cake, take her to the river to try catching fish in the shallows (her favorite rare pastime), new toys, something. Ikiru had pulled him from his darkest places, given him a happier reason to keep living, and he wouldn’t feel right if he let her birthday pass without doing something special.

He debates inviting Sasuke and his friends over. Not for a party, but just...well, it’s as good a reason for multiple people to gather in his house at one time as any. And Ikiru absolutely adores attention, so all the more reason for it.

Itachi has gotten better at the socializing thing. At first, it was up to Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura to drop in on him whenever they had the time. He never asked them to come, but the welcome mat had always been tentatively held out. Sasuke and his gremlin friends, naturally, took full advantage of it.

Over the course of a year the random visits, sometimes as a group, sometimes individually, had gone from simple check-ins and visits to see Ikiru to actual talking about feelings. Itachi had found himself bonding with the three ninja rather against his will, but they’d snuck under his skin like weasels. He had come to consider them as friends, something he hadn’t had in a very long time. 

So many new relationships had wormed their way into his life, but Itachi was hard pressed to be upset about it. Ikiru was his light and soul. Sasuke was healing, and their relationship was mending slowly and carefully. Naruto was a bright and cheerful presence, and never made Itachi feel out of place, or hated, or feared. Sakura was steady, calming, and always seemed to know what he needed before he himself did. 

Sasuke and Naruto’s relationship had become rather wild and passionate after Naruto’s little chat with Itachi. They could hardly keep their hands off of each other, and had been caught in compromising positions more than once all across Konoha. 

Itachi had once walked in on them sucking each other’s faces off on his couch, and proceeded to pelt them with Ikiru’s dog toys with deadly accuracy. They hadn’t done it again--not on his furniture, at least. Sasuke pouted about the round bruise on his ass cheek for a week.

So, yes, Itachi felt it only right that he finally invite his...friends over, for a change. For Ikiru’s birthday. Tomorrow was thankfully Sunday, and he had checked ahead of time to make sure Sakura wasn’t working a weekend shift this week. Sasuke and Naruto weren’t currently on missions. It was perfect.

Itachi didn’t go into town more often than he needed to. Groceries and supply runs were his only stops, and he usually frequented the civilian sector, avoiding the shinobi of Konoha as often as he could. Maybe the Hokage had pardoned him, had let him return as a retired shinobi and take up residence in the old compound (his choice, not hers, and he had won that fight damn it), but that didn’t mean the rest of Konoha would be favorable to his presence. He hadn’t tried to gauge their reactions to him in the entire year he had been back, and had instead avoided everyone like the plague. He took Ikiru out the back way on their walks and forays to the river, and took the side roads and alleys on his trips into town.

But, he had never gone to Sasuke and Naruto’s apartment, or Sakura’s. He knew where they lived, and could find them easily enough. The problem was that they lived in the shinobi sector, and Itachi had no doubt he would run into more than a few familiar faces.

He didn’t know if he was ready.

But, he had to do this. For Ikiru if not himself. And for his friends. He needed to move on, to keep going, and if something as small as going to invite his friends over for a dog’s birthday party helped him feel better, then he was going to do it.

So he stepped out, heading to Sakura’s first. She was the most likely to be home, but her apartment was also the closest. 

Small victories.

Nobody accosted him on his foray into the streets. He got more than a few stares, some muttering, and two head nods that he hesitantly returned. But mostly eyes just slid over him, pretending like he wasn’t even there. Itachi could live with that.

He was only a few blocks away from Sakura’s apartment when a voice stopped him.

“Yo.”

Itachi stilled. Of course he would run into him today, the one day he’d tried to be brave. Of fucking course.

“Kakashi,” he greeted as genially as he could, turning to face the man. He hoped his voice wasn’t as cold as he felt. He couldn’t afford to come off as rude.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you in these parts yet. Special occasion?” Kakashi asked blandly, feigning disinterest. His hands were in his pockets, and his uncovered eye was lidded with what appeared to be boredom. Itachi knew better.

“Yes,” Itachi said. He didn’t elaborate.

“Care to share?” Kakashi pressed. Itachi grit his teeth. Damn it. 

“It’s...my dog’s birthday tomorrow.”

Because Itachi knew to look for it, he saw the spark of delight in Kakashi’s eye. “Oh, you have a dog?”

“I do,” Itachi replied, wondering how he could politely escape from this conversation in the meantime.

“Are you throwing her a birthday party then? Never took you for the type.” Kakashi sounded...teasing? Itachi blinked, thrown off guard.

“No, I’m just...I’m offering Sasuke and his friends to come over tomorrow, if they’d like. Ikiru loves them. It would make her very happy.”

Something twitched in Kakashi’s face. “Ikiru…” he murmured. “What a beautiful name. Your little party sounds like fun. I’m sure they will be happy to come.”

“Yes,” Itachi found himself and agreeing, and before he his brain could stop his mouth, he said, “Would you like to come?”

Inwardly he screamed. Outwardly, he stammered out an apology almost immediately. “I’m sorry, that was rather forward of me. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

Kakashi hummed, but the lines around his eyes were creasing with genuine amusement. “If I’m in the neighborhood, maybe I’ll drop by.”

“Ah.” Itachi blinked, caught off guard, then composed himself. “Alright, well, perhaps I will see you tomorrow. It was nice to see you again, Kakashi.”

“I can certainly say the same,” Kakashi purred. 

Itachi turned and fled the rest of the way to Sakura’s.

-:-

His friends had easily accepted his invitation, looking surprised then delighted that he had asked at all. Naruto was practically bursting at the seams upon learning that it was Ikiru’s birthday. Sometimes Itachi wondered if he loved Ikiru more than his own brother. Ikiru wasn’t a mouthy little bastard, so there was some merit to the thought.

They had showered Ikiru with a more than adequate amount of love upon arrival. The spoiled brat ate up every bit of it. Itachi eventually brought out the miniature cake he had made for her, having bribed Sakura to grab him a recipe from the Inuzuka’s. She gobbled it down in two bites, but not before Itachi had sneakily taken a picture of her with it.

Naruto had even brought some beer. Itachi wasn’t much of a drinker, but joined his friends in toasting Ikiru’s health and happiness. 

It was a good little party.

Happily distracted by Sakura’s detailed monologue on her newest research project on organ transplants, he had nearly forgotten his impromptu invitation to Kakashi, until there was a sharp knock on the door.

“Who’s that?” Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes at the door suspiciously. Itachi didn’t answer. He already knew.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto shouted delightedly as Itachi opened the door. 

“What are you doing here?” Sakura chimed in, looking between Itachi and Kakashi with a steadily forming look in her eyes that made Itachi want to fall through the floor.

“Itachi invited me, of course. And I wanted to meet the birthday girl.”

The birthday girl in question, who had zero sense of self-preservation, slammed into Kakashi’s legs with the same utter delight she presented in all her human interactions. “This must be the illustrious Ikiru, then. Aren’t you a beautiful girl!” he crowed, bending down to receive her attentions.

“Itachi invited you?” Sasuke asked disbelievingly. 

“Why wouldn’t he? We’re old friends.” 

“What? Really? I’ve never seen you two together since he’s been back,” Naruto asked, a bit obtuse as to what was actually happening, but still managing to ask the real questions. Itachi wanted to die. A quick death was preferable.

“He needed time to adjust to being back,” Kakashi shrugged easily. “No need in me poking around in his business. I’m glad to see you’re adjusting to retired life so well, Itachi.”

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a look. 

“What are you really doing here, Kakashi?” Sakura asked bluntly. Itachi felt the atmosphere tense, and he wondered if it was too soon to run away to the coast and live as a reclusive fisherman for the rest of his life. 

Kakashi’s gaze slid from Itachi to his former student. Slowly, deliberately, he met her eyes, but then the lines of his face softened and he offered a smile behind his mask. “Just hoping to mend an old friendship. We’ve all had enough of the darkness, I’d say. Wouldn’t you agree?” 

Sakura and Sasuke relaxed. Naruto just looked bewildered. “Come on in, Kakashi. Make yourself at home. There’s beer, too, if you want some,” Sakura offered with a genuine smile to her old teacher. Ikiru yipped happily as Kakashi stepped further in, clearly happy about another person to receive her affections.

“This is my house,” Itachi muttered mutinously, but was ignored by everyone as Kakashi slid into their group seamlessly.

Later, Kakashi cornered Itachi in the kitchen while the other three were caught up in a vigorous game of shiritori.

“You don’t seem all that excited that I accepted your invitation,” Kakashi said quietly as Itachi fumbled for another beer out of the fridge.

Itachi didn’t answer right away. He took his time opening the bottle and flicking the cap into the trash. He took a quick drink, letting the sharp taste clear his thoughts as he turned to face his old colleague. 

“I am not...unhappy that you’re here,” Itachi amended. “But I admit that I’m uncertain as to why you would come at all. I would have thought all those who knew me before would not stand to look at me now. Are you not of the same mind?”

Kakashi pushed off from the wall he had been leaning in, ambling ever closer to Itachi until he could see the deep grey color of his eyes, the sharpness of his details. His sight had mostly been fixed, but Itachi was still quite near-sighted. His shortcoming didn’t annoy him quite so badly right now.

“At first I was happy to pretend you were dead.” Itachi flinched, just a little. “I was glad you never left your home, hardly did anything at all, just slid into obscurity. It was so easy to forget about you at first. But then three shinobi who I’ve come to consider very dear dear friends of mine wouldn’t shut up about you. They talked about you, about your dog, about your life, and I eventually found myself listening to them when they talked about you. They spoke of you so fondly, even Sasuke, after a while. And, I decided, if they could regard you so highly, then maybe it was time to give you another shot.”

“I don’t deserve it,” Itachi pressed back immediately. “I am...fond of them also, and consider them dear to me. But I don’t deserve them. I don’t deserve any of this.”

Kakashi reached up and rubbed his thumb over Itachi’s bottom lip, effectively halting his speech. “Just because you think so doesn’t make it so,” Kakashi murmured. Itachi blinked, off balance. “Let me try.”

_Take your own advice_, Naruto had said to him once. 

“I...alright.”

-:-

After Ikiru’s birthday, Kakashi slowly wormed his way into Itachi’s life. 

He started with quick visits, “just checking on Miss Ikiru,” and then introduced Ikiru to his ninken. Despite their differing functions, the ninken absolutely adored Ikiru, and she loved them. She was especially happy about having another person in her life to spoil her rotten. She and the ninken would play in the garden for hours while Kakashi pestered Itachi into talking to him. 

Seemingly random touches turned into very much deliberate ones. Kakashi would tease, whisper things into his ear, brush a hand along the base of his spine, push his hair back behind his ear.

Kakashi kissed him for the first time on the very couch that he’d scolded Naruto and Sasuke for making out on. It was _his_ couch, though, and he could make out on his own couch if he pleased.

Kissing turned into heating touching. Kakashi’s hands left him trembling every time, and he found he couldn’t get enough of that warm body and those soft hands and lips and Kakashi’s cheeky smiles. His beauty mark was a nice touch, too.

The touching turned into sex, and of course that was lovely too. Kakashi fucked him tenderly, fucked him hard, fucked him slow. He always seemed to know exactly how Itachi needed it. 

The sex turned into love, and that was the best part of it all. 

-:-


End file.
